Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer along with Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012: Heyboer initially founded Tinlicker as a solo project, releasing the act’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero.
In 2014 Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online.
2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland.
The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, 2024’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival.
Now, back in 2020, as Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they started a successful and ongoing collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including last year’s “I Started A Fire.” Shortly after the release of ‘I Started A Fire,” Heyboer and Achthoven invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the group. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”
The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl.
Earlier this year, the trio released their fourth album — and first as at rio — Dreams of the Machine earlier this year. The album features album singles “I Want My Freedom,” “Reborn,” and “Release.” The trio recently released the standalone single “Edge of Forever,” a collaboration with producer, longtime friend and collaborator Helsloot through Remember The Future/[PIAS]. Their latest collaboration can trace its origins to the two acts sharing a bus during their recent European tour together.
“Edge Of Forever” is a club and festival stage banger that features Baldwin’s emotive pop star-like vocal floating atop glistening synth oscillations, pulsating reverb-soaked bass lines that slowly builds up to a cathartic and euphoric frenzy. While continuing to cement the act’s long-held reputation for crafting melodic, emotional house music, “Edge Of Forever” may arguably be one of the more cinematic tracks of their growing catalog.
“The guys were noodling around while I was looking through the great sweep of glass at the front of the bus, the landscape passing almost imperceptibly beneath us,” Tinlicker’s Hero Baldiwin explains. “There is something contemplative about travelling in that way; cities, towns and villages drift past, fields give way to forests, and before long you find yourself less aware of the places themselves than the quiet passage of time between them. Later Thomas (Helsloot) and I listened back to what had been started on the bus, pressed record and the lyric and melody emerged intact in a single take.”